It grows on you.
“She's Out of My League” starts out as a broad, nerd-meets-babe romantic comedy that feels completely artificial and formulaic. Nerdy Kirk (Jay Baruchel) has three buddies giving him bad advice on his love life, and babe Molly (Alice Eve) has an acid-tongued sidekick and a spirited sister nudging her.
The movie then heads south into gross-out comedy territory, in the vein of “There's Something About Mary” or “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.”
Somewhere along the way, the characters grow on you. Eve is hot enough to be Christie Brinkley's sister, and she seems so uncommonly decent. Baruchel finds a way to make a skinny, average-looking guy with a junker car and a dead-end job endearing and sympathetic.
You find yourself pulling for these two to stay together, even if the movie's formula leaves little doubt where it's heading. A message about self-worth gains traction, turning things sweetly sentimental.
A long list of obstacles to true love fills the second act.
Both Kirk and Molly are on the rebound. Her hunky pilot boyfriend cheated, while his nasty girlfriend dumped him. She's a high-paid party planner living in a beautiful apartment, he's a lowly airport-security officer living in a dump. Her family has polish. His is pretty low-class, proven at a family dinner to which Kirk brings Molly.
Beyond the appeal of the two lead characters, the outrageous comedy had people at a Tuesday preview laughing so loud and long that at times you couldn't hear what the characters were saying.
And what they were saying was often crude.
In a prolonged sequence in which Kirk prepares for what might be his first intimate date with Molly, he does some manscaping on his body hair — but not without one buddy dropping his pants for a show-and-tell and another buddy helping out with the actual shave.
Would guys in real life act like this? Highly unlikely, but it had people screaming with laughter.
Another scene finds Kirk having to deal with a bodily fluids problem when Molly's sister and parents suddenly arrive and interrupt a makeout session.
T.J. Miller, a standup comic, is funny as curly-haired buddy T.J., who convinces Kirk he has no chance with Molly because she is a 10, while Kirk is just a 5. You can't date more than two notches above yourself, T.J. insists.
Krysten Ritter, as Molly's bitter pal Patty, is working the opposite side of the anti-romantic equation, unable to see why someone who looks like Molly would want to be with someone who looks like Kirk.
“She's Out of My League” is less crude and more romantic/sentimental than, say, “Knocked Up” or “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.”
But it's in the same basic ballpark when it comes to generating laughs.
Contact the writer:
444-1269, bob.fischbach@owh.com
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
